While Simon has enjoyed a great deal of financial success on Broadway for many years, critics have generally been disdainful of his work. Brighton Beach Memoirs is regarded as the play which changed that. Many critics believed the play was the first time Simon successfully combined comedy with serious themes, and many expressed hope that Simon would finally be taken seriously by scholars. Not all critics agreed on the work's merit, but Simon did receive some of the best reviews of his career for Brighton Beach Memoirs.

T. E. Kalem of Time wrote: "Without slighting his potent comic talents, Simon looks back, not in anger, remorse or undue guilt but with fondly nourished compassion at himself as an adolescent in 1937 and at the almost asphyxiatingly close-knit family around him." Frank Rich of the New York Times concurred, stating "Mr. Simon makes real progress towards an elusive...